Program

Minor in Global Peace, Human Rights, and Justice Studies

Program Scope

The world is a dangerous place, fraught with the specter of nuclear war and ecological
devastation and threatened by the inability of governmental and financial powers to create
just and effective solutions for deepening social problems as well as for the conflicts of
peoples and nations.

Knowledge is a powerful tool; it has shown that each individual can make a difference.
Global Peace, Human Rights, and Justice Studies provides an organized study of the
international law of human rights and the ways it can be used by the citizens of the world
in pursuit of basic human rights; a study of the causes of domestic and social violence,
civil war, and war between nations; and a study of the various methods that have been and
are being developed for the non-violent resolution of conflicts at the personal, group,
national, and international levels. The program emphasizes the need for justice in the
distribution of the world's goods as a condition for a peaceable and sustainable world.

Students and faculty in this all-university, interdisciplinary minor cooperatively
study and explore in depth the problems, issues, challenges, and opportunities to prevent
war and to make this a just and peaceable society and world.

Career Outlook

The Minor in Global Peace, Human Rights, and Justice Studies provides problem-solving
skills relevant to students whatever their major course of study. These are the skills for
analyzing and redressing the underlying causal roots of violence, including poverty in the
midst of plenty, racism, sexism, imperialism, fear, and environmental degradation. These
are the skills that empower people to work more effectively to protect human rights and
create systems of social justice. Without jobs and justice there can be no peace.

Centers

The Global Peace, Human Rights, and Justice Studies Program works cooperatively with
the following institutions in developing internships, sponsoring programs and conferences,
and engaging in other educational projects in pursuit of peace and justice.

The Center for the Covenant, College of Humanites, SFSU

The center was formed to promote awareness, understanding, and use of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which became international law in 1976 and was
ratified by the U.S. in 1992.

Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute, Berkeley, California

Since 1965 the institute has been providing information on law and history to scholars,
activists, and the media; and working for jobs, justice, and peace.

SFSU Urban Institute

The purpose of the center is to develop strategies and practical programs to address
critical economic, social, and educational problems in San Francisco and the Bay Area.